Upgraded credit card regulations have been launched by IATA – affecting all airlines and travel agents around the world. Our industry has done a lot of work specifically around PCI (payment card industry) credit card protection in particular noting that airlines suffer significant volumes of credit card fraud; they are keen to reduce this problem. This affects ATPI Business World Travel and our clients in that a change will occur when communicating your credit card number to us. For most clients we have your credit card saved in our secure Traveller or Company Profile system and so nothing changes in this instance. This usually only needs human intervention when your card’s expiry date is adjusted or you want to change your card on file. For ‘one off’ or new card numbers we will now email you a secure link to complete the card details and return to us. We are not permitted to take credit card numbers over the phone or by email. In the interests of improving your credit card security, we appreciate your understanding.

Airline Update:

Singapore Airlines has won the coveted Skytrax Best Airline in the World Award for 2018. Singapore won the Best First Class Award and was in the top 3 airlines for Business, Premium Economy and Economy Class and so the top award was deservedly theirs for the taking. Best Business Class was Qatar Airways (then Singapore and ANA All Nippon), Premium Economy Class went to Air New Zealand followed by Qantas and then SQ, Economy Class top airline was Thai Airways followed by SQ and then Qatar. Disappointingly local airline Air New Zealand no longer feature in the top 20 airlines for Business Class. They were 19th in the world for Economy Class but the star of the show, Air NZ’s Premium Economy kept them in the game with that category’s ultimate Award.

Airlines are ‘back to the future’ and bringing back the retro rule from days gone by of a surcharge for flying on peak days. Quite a few international airlines have adopted a surcharge for flying Thursday to Sunday. One airline charges an additional $60 Economy and $300 Business Class for flights on those peak days.

Hawaiian Airlines already offers a very useful connecting flights schedule beyond Honolulu to around a dozen US mainland destinations. Their newest will be Long Beach(LGB) and this offer provides a very tidy connection to and from Auckland, completely avoiding the mayhem of LAX. Long Beach Airport is a 20-25 minute drive to Disneyland so this will be great for our leisure clients as well – a few days with the family in Disneyland with Honolulu on the way home!

Hotel update:

Iconic brand Regent Hotels has been partly sold to IHG – Inter Continental Hotels, which will take a 51% stake. A boutique brand, Regent Hotels can be found in around 10 locations in Asia and Europe. More mature clients will fondly remember The Regent Auckland (now the Stamford Plaza) which was the first luxury hotel in Auckland, introducing a new standard to the country. IHG will develop the Regent brand as its top tier luxury brand and will build this to around 40 hotels over the next few years. The iconic harbour-side Inter-Continental Hong Kong will revert back to the future with its original brand as the Regent Hong Kong.

One of our San Francisco favourites the Inn at Union Square has undergone a tip to toe renovation. Located right in the heart of Union Square this boutique property has some snug rooms but one of the best locations! Pitched at the four-star market the Inn offers a complimentary continental breakfast as well as wine tasting in the evenings.

Travel better! At ATPI/Business World Travel we’re a member of the prestigious US-based Virtuoso, an invited group of the world’s leading travel agents and where we achieve benefits over and above any other travel agent or booking site for our clients. For the same as any advertised rate including on the hotel site, Bookings.com or Expedia you’ll receive:

Upgrade on arrival, subject to availability

Daily Breakfast for two

Food & Beverage or Spa services credit usually around US$100

Early check-in/late check-out, subject to availability

Complimentary Wifi

Often some other kind of personalised in-room amenity

Take a look at www.virtuoso.com or call one of our BWT Travel Advisors

Executive Leisure and Private Clients:

Toy Story Land has just opened at Disney World in Florida. Toy Story Land puts you right into Andy’s backyard, shrinking you down to the size of a toy as you explore the universe from the three Pixar movies. (You’re considered an honorary toy the minute you walk in). There’s a lot to see, from the Slinky Dog Dash roller coaster to the Alien Swirling Saucers teacup-style ride and Toy Story Mania. The new park within a park has taken over 4 years to create and is a part of a major transformation for Disney World. Next up in 2019 is a significant Star Wars attraction.

We’re urging Hawaii-bound clients planning a visit to Oahu’s Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve this week to check for updates before heading to the spot, famed for snorkelling. The beach was closed recently following a sudden spike in jellyfish stings before 0900. The park is routinely shut on a Tuesday. Reports say it will depend on the ocean conditions. The upper portion of Hanauma Bay, including its visitor center and scenic overlook will be open.

General:

Wellington now has an alternative to taxis or rental cars – introducing Mevo which is a unique car sharing service offering Audi A3 e-tron electric vehicles. Whilst there is an airport pick up station available the system works well in the central city grid. Basically if you see a car is available you use your Mevo APP to open it and take it to your next appointment. Through a special arrangement with Wellington City Council you can also park the car anywhere in the city. Look at www.mevo.co.nz

Northside Aucklanders now have a public transport link to Auckland Airport. The new North Harbour Express SkyBus leaves Albany Westfield every 30 minutes from 0400hrs stopping enroute at Smales Farm and Akoranga Drive. Return first bus departs from the Domestic Terminal at 0500hrs and from International at 0505hrs. NORTH HARBOUR EXPRESS is $24 one way, $44 return or $210 for a 10 trip card.

Travellers heading to the US from any airport in the world should allow 3-hours for advance check in. Passengers are randomly selected for the second check and on some flights it might be 6 passengers and others up to 100 need to go through the second screening and an interview. A reminder that your electronic items (phone, laptop, camera etc) must be charged and working. Remember clients, Honolulu is in America and the 3-hours applies!

Powder has now joined the liquid/gels hand luggage screening ‘no-no’ list. International travellers from New Zealand and Australia will notice changes to the way airport security screening takes place – all powders you are carrying in your hand luggage have to be separately screened. This will also apply to baby formula you might be taking on board.

For more details and bookings contact your BWT consultant on 0800-508 580 or 09-5293700

Ambassador Scott P. Brown strongly welcomes President Trump signing the Knowledgeable Innovators and Worthy Investors Act, or KIWI Act, into law today in Washington, D.C. The KIWI Act will allow eligible New Zealand nationals to enter the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act as nonimmigrant traders and investors.

“This is a historic day for the United States and New Zealand partnership. Today’s announcement is a testament to the long-standing friendship and economic cooperation between the United States and New Zealand,” Ambassador Brown said. “With this addition of New Zealand to our eligible Treaty Traders and Investors visa program, we look forward to even greater bilateral commerce and entrepreneurship. The KIWI Act received overwhelming, bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress, showing the broad and unshakable support for the U.S.-New Zealand partnership. This legislation demonstrates the United States’ continuing recognition of the value of Kiwi investment and innovation.”

Promapp, with headquarters in Auckland, is being used by more than 500 public and private sector organisations worldwide successfully map and manage their processes realising process improvements through intuitive, powerful tools used by teams every day.

“Our acquisition of Promapp creates tremendous opportunities for companies to visually map and better manage every business process,” says Nintex CEO Eric Johnson, in a statement.

“By bringing together the power of the Nintex Platform with Promapp, our customers and partners can easily design, deploy and manage their business processes and address process automation scenarios that have been difficult or expensive to solve.”

Endace, a world leader in high-speed network recording, playback and analytics hosting, and Ixia, a Keysight Business, announced today that they have jointly signed a technology partnership agreement. The partnership will focus on complementary and integrated solutions that enable joint customers to better manage the performance and security of their networks.

The discovery of data breaches continues to be problematic for organizations. According to Ponemon Research, it takes an average of 191 days to discover a data breach. In 60 percent of cases, according to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, the discovery is made by someone outside of the organization.

In order to combat the issues surrounding the discovery of network anomalies, the combined solutions from Ixia and Endace provide enterprises with greater visibility into network activity and give analysts the detailed, packet-level evidence they need to go back-in-time to investigate and resolve security and network or application performance issues quickly and conclusively.

The U.S. House unanimously passed the Knowledgeable Innovators and Worthy Investors (KIWI) Act (S. 2245), a bipartisan bill authored by Senators Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) to extend trade and investor visas to New Zealand citizens to increase international business between the United States and New Zealand. The KIWI Act was passed by the Senate last month, and will now be sent to the President for his consideration.

“New Zealand visitors supported over 2,000 Hawaii jobs last year alone and continue to build on our strong cultural and economic ties to the Indo-Pacific region,” Senator Hirono said. “By extending trade and investment visas, the KIWI Act will help spur further job creation in Hawaii and across the United States, and reaffirm the importance of our close and longstanding relations with New Zealand.”

“We are delighted that Congress has passed the KIWI Act,” New Zealand’s Ambassador to the United States Tim Groser said. “Once signed into law by the President, the bill will make it easier for New Zealanders to grow and expand their businesses in the U.S., helping to strengthen our two economies and to deepen our bilateral relationship. We would like to thank all who supported the KIWI Act, and in particular to acknowledge the work of Senators Mazie Hirono and Mike Lee as well as Chairman Grassley in the Senate and Representatives Darrell Issa, Kevin Brady, and Rick Larsen as well as Chairman Goodlatte in the House for their collective effort to advance this important piece of legislation.”

“The Chamber of Commerce Hawaii welcomes the passage of the KIWI Act to extend E-1 and E-2 temporary visas to New Zealand to promote trade and investment in the United States,” Chamber of Commerce Hawaii President & CEO Sherry Menor-McNamara said. “Increasing access to E-1 and E-2 visas will increase the ability of New Zealand businesses to grow, trade with, and work and invest in the United States, which will have a reciprocal benefit to our nation and Hawaii’s economy.”

“Americans and New Zealanders collaborate closely in business, technology, research, security and entertainment, yet the lack of access to trader and investor visas has been a serious impediment to increased economic growth and greater bilateral cooperation,” said United States| New Zealand Council Chairman Edward Farrell. “The United States| New Zealand Council applauds the passage of the KIWI Act by Congress to resolve this issue. Extending E-1 and E-2 visas to New Zealanders would significantly increase bilateral business activity, encourage greater investment and economic growth in the United States, create more American jobs and related benefits, and strengthen US-NZ bilateral relationship.”

The passage of the KIWI ACT comes as the United States and New Zealand marked a milestone 75 years of diplomatic relations last year. The bill would allow New Zealand citizens to apply for trade (E-1) and investor (E-2) temporary entry visas.

New Zealand is one of our nation’s important strategic and economic partners. New Zealand is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance together with the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada and Australia and is the only member of the alliance whose citizens are not eligible to apply for E-1 and E-2 visas. Total foreign direct investment from New Zealand to the United States is valued at over half a billion dollars. However, New Zealand businesses have found that the lack of access to E-1 and E-2 visas has hampered their ability to increase trade and investment in the United States. By allowing New Zealanders to apply for these visas, the KIWI Act aims to expand business and investment opportunities between the two nations.

Accounting software company Xero has inked a deal with US payroll platform Gusto and has pulled the pin on the development of its own payroll product.

As a consequence of stopping its own US payroll product, Xero will incur a NZ$16.2 million non-cash impairment of assets. The adjustment would be recognised in the first half of the 2019 financial year.

Xero said the move would allow the company to redeploy resources in other markets and projects.

The company said the alliance allows Xero to better serve the US market with a full-service payroll offering that meets the needs of customers working across 50 US states, each with different payroll tax requirements.

The latest patents (9,955,910 and 10,013,527) help to secure the company’s market-leading position in automatically assessing an anatomical surface feature and securely managing information related to this.

ARANZ Medical CEO, Bruce Davey says, “Our growing portfolio of patents is testament to the unique position we hold in the area of wound and skin surface measurement. The growing awareness of the benefits of our systems, customer acceptance of our easy to use products, and the growing strength of our IP portfolio provides us with confidence to continue investing in new innovations for our product lines.”

New Zealand’s Promapp Solutions – an industry-leading provider of cloud-based business process management (BPM) software for creating and managing business processes online – is expanding its U.S. presence, opening its second U.S. office in Austin, Texas.

Promapp already has seven employees in the new Austin office, with plans to add other sales and marketing positions in the near future. The company is currently recruiting for several positions, including a Marketing Operations Manager, and additional Account Executives and Sales Development Representatives.